I am conducting research into all aspects of film-making so that by the end I will be able to confidently produce a music video as part of my student project.
I have got down 4 of the main film formats and a little bit of information about them but what I am needing is advice on which are the most popular among film-makers, which are the most reliable and which have the highest quality etc.
If you could reply with your take on the following, it would be much appreciated:
Betacam SP
VHS
Mini-DV
DVD-RW
Thanks,
Dan
Technically, they're video tape formats rather than film formats :).
Quality-wise, Beta SP and Mini-DV are the best two, and pretty similar. The only one that's popular among movie-makers is Mini-DV, as Beta SP is an analogue format and expensive to shoot unless you have a free camera. Also, HDV has been rapidly replacing DV among the low-budget movie-makers I know.
VHS is pretty hopeless, though S-VHS isn't too far behind DV and was used a lot for low-budget TV stations around the world. Also, one of the best shorts I've seen was shot on VHS, which I suspect was one reason why it didn't get much interest from film festivals and the like.
